Night moonlight still spilled across every corner of New Eridu, but in the shadows it couldn't reach, Sarah Floren stumbled out, one hand braced against the wall.
"Hmph. Guess that's a demonic blade for you — one use, and it's already fighting back like this."
Sarah now carried Tailless, sheathed once more, while her other arm clenched tight around her own Sacrifice.
"Just one strike, and I already feel like my arm's about to snap off. Are all the Hoshimis this insane?"
Every generation of the Hoshimi family's head had been one of New Eridu's shining stars of martial prowess. But contrary to what most people believed — that the family's bloodline itself carried some superior gift — their true strength had always come from this man-eating demonic blade.
Across seven generations of blade masters, each one had carried Tailless to the front lines of the war against the Ethereals, and it was this that had cemented the Hoshimi family's exalted standing today.
But that power came with a price. Every time Tailless was drawn, the sealed wills of its past masters would work their Corruption upon whoever wielded it now. And once a wielder died, the blade would consume their very flesh and blood as sustenance. In the end, every generation's blade master fell to it — the demonic blade devouring its own master.
"Equivalent exchange. Heh. How... perfectly fair."
Sarah's body still ached. She'd used Hoshimi Miyabi's stolen biometric data to break the seal on the sheath, and drawn on the Progenitor's power to force Tailless under her control — but she was no true blade master, and the blade had fought back violently. That was why she'd fled.
"No matter, though. It's not the blade itself I need — it's the power inside it."
Muttering to herself, Sarah drew out the deep violet Sacrifice Core and closed her hand around it.
The core pulsed with light without pause, and at the same moment, Tailless began to glow a pale blue.
Then, at Sarah's command, a portion of the blue light drifted free of the blade and sank into the core. Only then did she seem to finally let out a full breath of relief.
"Next... all that's left is the final test subject."
With that, Sarah left the Ballet Twins Building behind, ready to begin her final experiment.
Elsewhere, Geno — who had chased after Twiggy — found his feelings a tangled mess. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure before him, he felt something he couldn't quite put into words.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I don't know. It just feels like... that loneliness I used to carry has disappeared."
The words sounded strange out of context, but Twiggy understood them completely. She touched the ring on her hand, its glow now faded, a flood of emotion welling up inside her.
Time rewinds to half an hour earlier — around when Zhu Yuan and the others had just run into the Rebel Soldiers.
Geno had chased the frenzied, out-of-control Twiggy the whole way, finally stopping in a room somewhere inside the building.
"Finally stopped. Any longer and my legs would've given out."
Geno panted hard, catching his breath — sure, he might as well be an Ethereal himself at this rate, but even so, this was pushing it.
He'd sprinted flat-out from the West Tower all the way to the East Tower without a single break. No ordinary person could have kept up.
"What exactly are you after? Give Twiggy her body back, now."
Geno stared at the Twiggy in front of him. She looked the same on the outside, but he knew that beneath that face was an entirely different soul.
The female ghost, after seizing control of Twiggy's body, had run the whole way here without saying a single word to Geno.
Even after hearing Geno's demand, she still didn't answer. Just as his patience was starting to run thin, she suddenly tilted her head up — and the next instant, Twiggy's body crumpled to the floor.
Startled, Geno lunged forward to catch her before she hit the ground.
"Hey! Just because it's not your own body doesn't mean you can treat it like garbage!"
With Twiggy safely in his arms, Geno let out a breath of relief, then turned an irritated glare on the ghost, who had drifted back up into the air beside him, and started venting.
The ghost still seemed utterly unable to speak, but at Geno's complaint she looked visibly embarrassed, waving her hands as though trying to tell him something.
But Geno's attention was entirely on Twiggy, and he never noticed what she was trying to say.
"Twiggy! Twiggy! Are you all right?"
He shook her gently. The girl's small face was scrunched tight, looking utterly haggard and weak.
Just then, the ghost beside them seemed to sense something. She whipped her gaze toward the doorway they'd both come through, gesturing at Geno more and more frantically.
"What? The door? Is something at the door?"
There was no time for the ghost to explain — or maybe she simply couldn't — so she tried instead to block the doorway herself.
But before she could even get there, Geno's instincts screamed first.
"Killing intent!"
Geno's form flickered and vanished from where he stood, and an instant later, a burst of dust erupted from the spot he'd just occupied.
Geno had teleported with Twiggy in his arms, dodging the lethal blow. From the corner of the room, he flicked on Ether Sight in an instant to track the attacker's movements — and found himself caught off guard.
"It's this thing? Wasn't it supposed to be back in the hall?"
Standing before Geno was the same strange Ethereal that had attacked the Rebel Soldiers back in the hall.
But once the dust settled, its silhouette showed a few differences from before.
The figure that had attacked the Rebel Soldiers in the hall had been white. This one was black.
Cold sweat ran down Geno's temple as he held Twiggy tight.
If he'd been even two seconds slower, it would've been over. This thing's speed was simply absurd.
"Gotta say, 'gorgeous but deadly' never goes out of style. Total classic."
Even in a situation this dangerous, Geno still found the leisure to crack wise — but his opponent had no intention of giving him much time to react.
The Ethereal quickly locked onto him again, twisting its body around for another strike.
With a clang, sparks flew bright from clashing metal in the cramped room.
Geno drove it back with one arm, silently thankful the thing still obeyed the usual rules — blistering speed paired with somewhat lacking strength. Otherwise, things could have gone very differently.
Forced back, the Ethereal seemed to realize this too — but instead of giving up its attack, it did something that left Geno utterly baffled.
____
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